Cryptocurrency exchange Binance completed the acquisition of Swipe, a London-based Visa crypto debit card provider, confirming the news we posted last week.
Officially announcing the news on Tuesday, Binance said the acquisition would help bring crypto to the mainstream. The exchange did not disclose price details of the deal.
“To achieve our mission of making crypto more accessible to the masses, off-ramps are a key component as well,” said Binance CEO Changpeng “CZ” Zhao. “By giving users the ability to convert and spend crypto directly, and have merchants still seamlessly accept fiat, this will make the crypto experience much better for everyone.”
As part of the deal, Binance is also listing Swipe’s SXP token today and is opening trading for SXP/BTC (bitcoin), SXP/BNB (Binance coin) and SXP/BUSD (Binance USD stablecoin) pairs.
Notably, Binance also owns a portion of SXP from the acquisition. The exchange said the “vast majority” of its SXP tokens are locked over a multi-year period.
What’s more, Swipe has also listed BNB on its platform, allowing users to buy and sell the coin with their linked bank accounts, and making BNB spendable with fiat through the Swipe Visa debit card.
The card, now branded as Binance Card, is currently available in 31 countries within the European Economic Area and is issued by Contis Financial Services, who is a Visa principal member. Swipe supports fiat transactions in euros, British pounds, U.S. dollars, Korean wons, and Philippine pesos.
Binance said the card is “soon” launching in regions throughout Asia and North America.
The SXP token has been on an upward trend since Binance announced its buyback news last week. The token's price has risen over 50% since the reporting and is currently trading at around $0.70, according to CoinMarketCap.
The Swipe acquisition is Binance’s second publicly-known acquisition of 2020 after CoinMarketCap and the sixth one in total. The exchange has previously acquired crypto wallet provider Trust Wallet, blockchain data startup DappReview, Indian cryptocurrency exchange WazirX, and little-known Seychelles-based derivatives platform JEX.
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Source: The Block
